Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Ordinals are adjectives which agree both in number and in gender with the

noun to which they refer. Primeroand tercerodrop the -obefore a mascu-

line singular noun:

la segunda pregunta the second question

el tercer punto the third point

They usually precede nouns except in titles: Carlos V(quinto) ‘Charles V’.

Use of ordinals

Except in extremely formal or technical language, it is common practice to

replace ordinals beyond décimowith a cardinal number:

el siglo XX (veinte) the twentieth century

el capítulo quince the fifteenth chapter

Beyond ‘tenth’ only centésimo‘one hundredth’, and milésimo‘one thou-

sandth’ are well known and regularly used by native speakers.

The formal reference to anniversaries is a rare case where the ordinals are

regularly used:

el vigésimo aniversario the twentieth anniversary

Adverbial ordinals

Occasionally adverbial forms of ordinals are found, though generally not

beyond primeramente ‘firstly’. More commonly an ordinal + lugar ‘place’

is used: en segundo lugar‘secondly’.

Fractions

(^1) / 2 to (^1) / 10
From^1 / 4 to^1 / 10 these are the same as the ordinal numbers: un noveno‘^1 / 9 ’,
tres cuartos‘^3 / 4 ’. Un mediois ‘^1 / 2 ’ and un tercio‘^1 / 3 ’.
Notes:
1 Mediohas several uses in non-arithmetical situations: (i) as a nounit means
‘middle/centre’ or ‘means’: en medio del cuarto‘in the middle of the room’, los
medios necesarios‘the necessary means’, (ii) as an adjectiveit means ‘half’, or
23.3.1
23.3
23.2.2
23.2.1

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

Fractions

245